The Influence of Improper Information on Japanese Lay Judges' Determination of Punishment
The Influence of Improper Information on Japanese Lay Judges' Determination of Punishment
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不当信息对日本非专业法官刑罚认定的影响
DOI：
10.1007/s11417-014-9193-7
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Watamura;E.;Wakebe;T.;& Karasawa;K.
非专业法官在确定适当惩罚方面的决策过程似乎是基于他们对罪行严重性的评估；这表明法律判决是主观决定的，这可能是有问题的。例如，有时可以根据不相关因而不适当的信息作出判断。理想情况下，在真正的法庭上考虑适当的惩罚时，这些资料将被忽略。因此，本研究的目的是确定与刑事案件无关的信息是否会影响日本非专业法官对适当惩罚的决定。我们的研究使用了一个虚构的案例研究和一份问卷来评估日本参与者是否受到不相关信息的影响。两个实验的结果一致表明，不相关的信息扭曲了惩罚的严重性和犯罪的严重性之间的内在主观平衡，甚至可能影响非专业法官在确定罪犯的惩罚时所从事的决策过程。我们提出了这种影响可能影响决策的原因，并讨论了是否可以有意识地忽略不当信息的影响。
Lay judges’ decision-making process in the determination of appropriate punishment appears to be based on their assessment of the seriousness of the crime; this indicates that legal sentences are being decided subjectively, which can be problematic. For instance, judgments can sometimes be made on the basis of irrelevant and therefore improper, information. Ideally, such information would be disregarded when considering appropriate punishment in a real court. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine whether information that is irrelevant to a criminal case can influence Japanese lay judges’ determination of an appropriate punishment. Our study used a fictional case study and a questionnaire to assess whether Japanese participants were influenced by exposure to irrelevant information. The results of two experiments consistently showed that irrelevant information distorts the inner subjective balance between the severity of punishment and the seriousness of the crime and may even influence the decision-making process that lay judges engage in when determining offenders’ punishment. We suggest reasons why this influence might affect decision-making and discuss whether the influence of improper information can be consciously disregarded.